


devotion

by Molnija



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Violence, does this warrant an m rating? eh idk, honestly i don't really have anything else to tag, not enough to warrant the warning imo but ... it's there, will i ever write yahashira without magic? probably not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molnija/pseuds/Molnija
Summary: Shigeru had said the elementals had been here for a while, but it hadn’t been until recently that they had started to cause trouble, and after failing to reach out to them and talk about it diplomatically, Kenjirou’s good-for-nothing boyfriend had been sent to take care of them. And then he’d foisted it all off on Kenjirou, because apparently it couldn’t have waited a day longer according to their teachers and a fever of 40° was, quote Professor Irihata,no state to use magic in, much less fight.Pff. Shigeru had a fire affinity, Kenjirou was 95 percent sure he couldn’t even get a fever.But this was his job now, so he might as well just finish the damn thing.





	devotion

**Author's Note:**

> I should think of titles BEFORE I write the fic because if I don't (and I usually don't) I just end up with shit that says absolutely nothing like this oNE
> 
> honestly I just wanted to write something with magic, the Yahashira just kinda happened. it's more Shirabu's adventures fighting a weird thing and almost dying rather than Yahashira but ... the Yahashira is still important to the plot. very much so, actually. granted you could switch Yahaba with anyone else bUT I LOVE YAHASHIRA OKAY
> 
> this is pretty short but eh ... didn't wanna draw it out too much. I'm not good with action sobs
> 
> did I ever mention that I love writing from Shirabu's perspective? because. I do. Shirab and Iwa are probably my favs to write in. maybe Akaashi too. but not as much as the other two.

Kenjirou’s steps left little squelching sounds on the mud-stained ground. It had been raining a lot lately, and the brown leaves spread across the pathways of the forest were dampened with water and dirt rather than crunching satisfactorily under the soles of his shoes. In fact, the skies were already darkening once again, blocking out the light and making it appear much darker than it should have been in the middle of the day. If he didn’t hurry, he’d get caught in yet another downpour, and his only clean casual clothes would get soaked and ruined. The mere possibility of it was pissing him off significantly, but there was nothing he could do.

Shigeru still hadn’t answered to his text of _fuck you for making me go out here_ , most likely because he was lying sick in bed, which was the whole reason Kenjirou was here in the first place. Why did he care about him again?

After a few more nerve-wracking minutes of silently praying for the rain to please just wait a bit longer, he finally arrived at his destination. The abandoned mansion lay there looking pretty much exactly how you would imagine an abandoned mansion to look, although it lost a lot of its scare factor in daylight. The windows were thrown in, some missing entirely, the front door was broken in half, the roof could barely be described as such, and one of the stone pillars had fallen and torn half of the wall down with it.

Nature had claimed back this place quite thoroughly – moss was growing on one side, a tree was extending right into one of the abundant holes in the roof, wild grass was spreading all over what he assumed had once been carefully planned pathways and decorations.

Thunder growled in the distance and while the mansion would probably not give him too much shelter considering the state it was in, it was definitely a better idea than standing around here waiting to get wet. He’d have to go in either way to search for that elemental Shigeru had claimed was giving them so much trouble.

If Kenjirou had been an earth elemental, he would have sought shelter in this place too, he thought. To those guys, it must have felt right at home.

If he was being entirely honest, he didn’t hate it even with his affinity to air. Learning under Ushijima had taught him to appreciate nature’s beauty, and while he could see people getting spooked by it, the place was giving off a somewhat familiar vibe, beckoning him to explore it and rest for a moment.

Then again, that could have just been something much darker luring him in. He had to keep his guard up.

He climbed through the broken door and was greeted by an entrance hall much bigger than anyone needed to have. There were paintings on the wall, but they had been all but ripped to pieces by _something_ , as had the overgrown carpet, and a humongous staircase framed by big doors that he assumed led to an atrium was stained by something dark. Whether it was mud or blood he couldn’t decide, but if it was the latter than it must have been here for a while, since it looked too dark to be fresh.

Shigeru had said the elementals had been here for a while, but it hadn’t been until recently that they had started to cause trouble, and after failing to reach out to them and talk about it diplomatically, Kenjirou’s good-for-nothing boyfriend had been sent to take care of them. And then he’d foisted it all off on Kenjirou, because apparently it couldn’t have waited a day longer according to their teachers and a fever of 40° was, quote Professor Irihata, _no state to use magic in, much less fight_.

Pff. Shigeru had a fire affinity, Kenjirou was 95 percent sure he couldn’t even get a fever.

But this was his job now, so he might as well just finish the damn thing.

“Now, now, where are you guys,” he muttered more to himself. He was very well aware that they wouldn’t come out if he asked nicely, sneaky little bitches that they were, so he’d have to do something else. Now that he’d seen the mansion for himself, perhaps using his magic like originally planned had been a bit of a utopic idea. Shigeru could have just burned all those plants down and they would’ve shown up to kick his ass and hopefully fail in doing so, but Kenjirou didn’t have that luxury. He’d tried fire magic once in his life and that had led to his cat and himself nearly getting burned alive, so he’d pass on ever doing that again. Water and earth he could deal with, but fire? That would never be friends with him. It was funny, seeing how the person he unexplainably fell in love with happened to be affine to it. One would have thought it would have pushed them apart.

Perhaps his best shot was to make himself appear vulnerable and get attacked, as he certainly did have neither the time nor the patience to search this whole place only for his targets to play hide and seek with him and constantly evade him. Making them angry seemed like his best bet, but at the same time, he wasn’t the greatest of fighters. Shigeru wasn’t either, really, but at least he had an elemental advantage. Kenjirou’s air magic would do shit to them.

What if this whole mission ended with them not even being here? Then it would have been a thirty minute walk through a damp forest for nothing and he’d go home pissed off.

The elementals had been sighted mostly when attacking unsuspecting passersby and taking things ranging from money to their lives. That alone was a very uncommon thing for elementals of any kind to do – normally those things didn’t even bother with humans and especially not with human possessions. They were above such foolish things as capitalism. Or anything fun like that. And why would an elemental kill, and on purpose? It did happen, occasionally, that they overestimated their powers and accidentally cause someone to die, but going out of their way to murder?

He’d known something fishy was going on here, but actually seeing their hideout made him feel even more uneasy. Combined with the destruction of the mansion, some of which didn’t seem to be from decay, all those crudities served to make him wonder why anyone had sent a student after this. Shigeru was strong, yes, and had shown several times he was capable of handling himself, but that didn’t mean this didn’t deserve its own godforsaken task force, or, well, at the very least assistance by a more experienced wizard.

The feeling that he shouldn’t have come here was creeping up on him ever so slowly.

Kenjirou took a deep breath and steadied himself, letting his powers spread through his veins. It was a familiar sensation, a soft warmth that seemed to envelope him from within, one he directed from his heart through his arms until his fingertips were prickling with magic and the air around him suddenly felt tangible, like something he could touch and hold rather than an abstract assortment of chemicals. It came easily to him, always had, and he was grateful for it; in case he needed to defend himself, he had to be ready.

Something twitched in his peripheral vision and he whirled around to attack it, but it was already gone. Had he imagined it or was it just that fast?

But there was no way it was the latter, right? Earth wasn’t exactly the element he’d associate with speed. If anything, it should appear even slower to him, as his reflexes were heightened when he was wielding his magic.

So he must have imagined it and this place was driving him crazy—

Without warning, something pushed him forward and nails dug into the nape of his neck, a stinging pain that shot through his veins like quick poison before he even knew what was happening.

He crashed onto the floor – his forehead hit the stone floor and the sudden pain almost knocked him out immediately, but he managed to roll over and prop himself up on his elbows, ready to stand back up and fight whatever had just attacked him, even if the ache resounding in his head was making strange colours block his vision and his neck felt like someone had torn out a batch of his skin, blood almost certainly dripping to the floor.

The _thing_ clutched his shoulder with its claws, pushed him down, _screamed_ into his face like nothing he’d ever heard before, and the thought alone was enough to make him feel like he was about to throw up. He couldn’t see what it was as the blotches of colour grew bigger and bigger, but he knew he stood no chance against it, not when its body was crushing him under its surreal weight, not when his entire body felt like it was going up in flames, he couldn’t even pinpoint anymore what exactly was hurting when the entire presence of it was enough to make even the parts of his body ache it hadn’t touched.

_He was going to die here._

He was going to die and Shigeru would wait for him but he would never come back.

He’d cry, certainly. He’d cry and swear revenge but it wouldn’t do anything, and they would never find his body because this thing was probably going to eat him alive – he thought he felt teeth digging into his arms, but he might have just been hallucinating at this point.

Shigeru had handed him over this mission because he’d trusted Kenjirou could do it, and he’d failed him.

He’d never see his dumb, obnoxious, beautiful face ever again. Never see him smile. Never hear him talk.

Come to think of it, Kenjirou’s last words to him had been that text message. No _I love you_ , no _thank you for everything you’ve done for me_ , but _fuck you for making me go out here_.

Something inside him revolted.

He heard the monster scream when a wall of air pushed it away from him, and he had no idea what he was doing but he somehow got up, a gust of wind supporting his step, and suddenly he didn’t feel the pain and he still couldn’t see a thing but that didn’t matter because all he needed to do was lash out at everything around him, nothing mattered as long as he got a hit on _something_.

He absolutely had to get out of here.

He wouldn’t let his last words to Shigeru be such petty bullshit.

Shigeru deserved so much better.

Someone shouted his name, but he didn’t bother listening, as it was likely just his imagination anyway. There was nobody else here. He was alone, alone with that _thing_.

Again, louder. He thought the voice was Shigeru’s, so he was definitely imagining it. Maybe he would be the last thing he’d see before he died, if he didn’t make it out of here.

Fire was burning through him – how ironic, considering how bad he was at using it – as he kept throwing everything he had into any direction he could, and the monster’s screams were growing louder, louder, and the more he heard it the weaker his legs felt, but he kept going at it, stumbling and supported by his magic if nothing else.

“Get away,” he mumbled, unable to raise his voice any louder. “Get away, get away, get away …”

He heard nothing but its screams, until—

Silence.

His legs gave out.

“Kenjirou!”

“Shigeru,” he whispered before everything turned to black.

 

* * *

 

He woke up to constant beeping, a body that felt so numb he barely believed it was his own past his head, and a gasp laced with a sob.

“Kenjirou,” that voice he would have recognised everywhere breathed, and when he turned his head to the best of his ability, Shigeru was crying at his bedside, not even bothering to try and hold himself together. “Fuck … You’re awake …”

“Yes,” he rasped and it felt strange in his throat, like he wasn’t supposed to be speaking. Frankly, he did not give half a shit. “I think.”

“If you’d died … God, this is all my fault … I should’ve never …” He shook his head and settled on hugging him instead, the motion awkward with Kenjirou’s movements being slow and their strange angle, but once again, no shits were given. He was alive, apparently, and Shigeru was here, and …

What happened, anyway?

He had trouble recalling anything past going into the mansion. He thought he remembered a strange creature attacking him, but the details were blurry, as were those on how the hell he got out of there. Among the faded memories, though, one stood out crystal clear.

Standing up and fighting – for Shigeru.

He wanted to say all of those things, but what came out was, “That was no elemental.”

“No shit,” Shigeru muttered into Kenjirou’s hair. “We don’t really know what it was yet, but it looks like it could shapeshift. Not that it matters anymore, that bastard is dead now … Seems like it still had an elemental weakness to fire. I burned that thing alive. You weren’t really helping, by the way.”

“You could’ve told me that earlier,” he retorted, but it sounded weak. No surprises there.

“I would, if they hadn’t found it out just after you left. We rushed there as quickly as we could … Well, ‘we’ is a bit too much. I arrived first, but the police came too … After I already killed it, but I guess I saved your life. But if I hadn’t sent you …”

“If you hadn’t sent me, it would have been you.” The thought of that sent shivers down his spine. Losing Shigeru like this – the one person he truly cared about – was utterly terrifying. The idea alone made his heart ache. “What about your fever?”

“You mean my burnout? It’s alright now.” A magical burnout, then. That made a lot more sense than the fire-affine guy getting an actual fever. He knew Shigeru’s tolerance for using magic wasn’t that high, but lately, he’d been wielding it a lot. Honestly, it had been a matter of time until it had gotten too much.

Actually, Kenjirou vaguely remembered a similar feeling fighting off that monster. It was a bit scary, how easily it could happen without you even noticing.

Personally he had more things to worry about than overworking himself, though, for example the bandages he was starting to feel all over his body and those damn machines he was connected to not stopping to fucking beep. They were ruining the moment.

“In the end, it’s our teachers fault for giving that mission to someone who clearly couldn’t handle it.” He half expected a snarky comment from Shigeru about how he would have very much been able to handle it, but all he ever got was a sombre silence that needed no words.

Shigeru might have been the one handing the job over to him, but he had also been the one coming to save him. A lot of it had been good timing, but Kenjirou couldn’t help wanting to believe there had been more to it – some sort of connection they had, something beyond human and beyond magical.

Maybe it was the painkillers that were probably being injected into his body making him think like this, or maybe it was his joy to be alive with him. _For_ him. Honestly, without him, he wouldn’t have made it at all, would have been killed while down on the floor. The reason he had fought had been Shigeru, and it always would be.

Preferably without near-death experiences next time, he’d keep on fighting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! °^°)/
> 
> yell with me about Yahashira and other good stuff on akaashi-tooru.tumblr.com/


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